We set out in our smallish bus @ 9 AM (I'd been up since
5:30) for the Summer Palace, which was mobbed.
All the rooms have high thresholds because the demons that lurk outside
the doors bringing can't bend their knees, so can't make it over the threshold. Twin lions guard the main courtyard; you can
tell the female because she has a lion cub under her left paw, while the male
has a ball. The summer palace is on a
man-made lake, which did have very fresh breezes, but (as I said before) the
place was packed. We walked out along a
lake-side pavilion, and then took a boat ride, where the breeze was very fresh.
Thence to a rickshaw ride through hutongs (alleyways)
adjacent to the Bell tower (which I'd visited on my own yesterday. Hutongs not v charming -- if it were Brazil,
I would have called them favelas. Many
decrepit bikes and parts of bikes. Also
an Amazon fulfillment bike-powered cart trundling along. We went into one house for lunch, all 19 of
us -- it was fine. Most of the houses
don't include toilets -- just use the public toilets in the hutong. Yich.
I can't imagine.
But the hutongs are considered v choice real estate. People live very packed together -- our guide
repeated a joke that people recognize each others' farts.
We went to a tea demonstration, which was sort of fun --
the demonstrator gave us tiny cups of green, oolong, green with jasmine, green
with rose tea, fruit tea.
One of our
number is a loudmouth -- he was being pretty obnoxious, but she held her
own. She ended with a demonstration of
mugs that change color when filled with hot liquid, and a little clay man who
peed when water hot enough to make tea.
Then we had a buying opportunity -- I bought some (surely
overpriced) tea, but refused the (free) mugs and peeing man, and, instead, got
a bit more tea for free.
Thence to the Forbidden City -- which is immense. You go over the moat and through two huge
courtyards and throne buildings (can't go inside) only to see a third, huger
and higher before you. The courtyards
are completely bare of trees, anything, with 15 layers of bricks below them so
no one could tunnel up into them. Massive
cauldrons of water in case of fire. It
was quite hot (about 90) but not muggy and there was a breeze, but I still went
through all the water I'd brought & wished for more. We were pretty footsore and tired by the time
we reached the Imperial gardens, which had peonies and cypresses and locust
trees.
The roofs were made of yellowish tile, giving rise to the
rumor they were made of gold.
We all trundle along following our guide with Whisperers
in our ears (devices that pick up what our guide says without his having to
shout. We're surrounded by hundreds of
other groups, following their guides, in English, French, Chinese, German.
Meanwhile, I have a laundry crisis. I left laundry yesterday morning, the 6th of
May, but on the laundry slip, I wrote 5/7/2017, so mistaking the day, and, in
addition, not remembering that Europeans (and probably Chinese, too) would
write the day before the month, not after.
It was supposed to come back the same day, but didn't. They said it would be back today by 6 PM, but
it's not here. The housekeeper was here,
and I was trying to explain, but of course having written the wrong date in the
wrong order didn't help. She was very
apologetic, and her English wasn't that strong, and of course the only relevant
sentences I could get out were "I don't understand", and "I do
not speak well".
Oh dear.
It's a long way from home.
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